


Unity

by LordCroussette



Series: Unity [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, First War with Voldemort, Fix It, Four Generations of Potters, Harry and Hermione have a Daughter, Order of the Pheonix, Peggy Sue, Potter Family, Potter Manor, Time Travel, first wizarding war
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-04
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-14 07:01:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28541454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LordCroussette/pseuds/LordCroussette
Summary: ***(Currently on Hiatus but I wanted to post it in case people wanted to read it now)***James Potter is bored. Meetings from the Order of the Pheonix are important, that he can agree with his wife Lily, but James can't help but slowly fall asleep when old men talk together.However, what he wasn't expecting what for something monumental to happen during one of those meetings. James and his family were surprised when a young couple and a toddler appeared in Potter Manor in the middle of an Order meeting, especially when they learn that the young couple's names are Harry and Hermione Potter...
Relationships: Fleamont Potter/Euphemia Potter, Frank Longbottom/Alice Longbottom, Harry Potter/Hermione Granger, James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Remus Lupin/Maria McKinnon (OC), Sirius Black/Layla Spinster (OC)
Series: Unity [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2090967
Comments: 6
Kudos: 85





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Time Travelling Potters](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/737463) by LordCroussette. 



> This story was inspired by my One-Shot THE TIME TRAVELLING POTTERS that I wrote a few months ago and posted on fanfiction.net. Even the day I had written the one-shot, I was already planning on writting a fully-fledge story on this and here we are. I started writting this before The Gift of the Creator, When Hermione said "NO!" and The Wife of Slytherin. I have no idea when I will continue it but I know that I will do it eventually.

Lily and James Potter were a young married couple. Lily and James hadn’t always liked each other in the past. Well, the truth was that James had pretty much fallen in love with Lily in their first few years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry but at the time, James was an immature boy. It was a result of James’ upbringing. His parents, Fleamont and Euphemia Potter, had spent nearly two decades trying to have children once the war against Grindelwald had been won. When the Potters finally had their son James in 1960, they had raised him and spoiled him a lot.

James and his friends, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew, also known as the Marauders, could sometimes be seen pranking anyone who was supporting Voldemort and his Death Eaters or anyone who was in general just bigoted or a bad person. Some, like Lily Evans, saw what the Marauders were doing as bullying so when James first asked Lily out, he had been quickly rejected by the  muggleborn with red hair and green eyes. James hadn’t lost hope and started to frequently ask Lily out. Each time he was told ‘No’, James acted like he saw it as a challenge, which further annoyed Lily.

When it was time for their O.W.L. Examinations, James did the error of bullying one Severus Snape, the biggest school rival of the Marauders but also the childhood friend of Lily Evans. Lily quickly came to Severus’ defence and pretty much told James, in front of the whole school, that she hated him. The words hit James really hard and he quickly stopped what he was doing. When Lily went to Severus to make sure he was alright however, Severus insulted her by calling her a ‘Mudblood’. At that moment, the friendship between Lily and Severus was forever broken. James quickly went back to Gryffindor Tower and started thinking back about just how he had acted during the previous five years and he quickly realised that he didn’t like it. He had finally seen that the line between pranking and bullying had become blurred, a lot.

That summer, Sirius escaped his family home and ran away to the Potters. James learned that Sirius had outright refused to support Voldemort or the pureblood ideas of the Black family and, in a fit of rage, his father had used the  Cruciatus Curse on him. When they were woken up in the middle of the night, the Potters took one look at a crying Sirius before they welcomed him with open arms in their home.

When they came back for their sixth year, everyone at the school saw that James and Sirius had changed. The Marauders were still into pranking but they stopped targeting specific individuals and were now into school-wide harmless pranks. Before, their pranks were focused on humiliating the victim. Now, the pranks had become about having a good laugh for everyone, including its victims.

James had also grown-up a lot during the last few months and had started taking his studies a lot more seriously. He had completely stopped making advances toward Lily and was even sometimes outright avoiding her. He was still in love with her and James doubted that it would ever go away but he had resigned himself that he had lost his chance with her. James also started helping his friend Remus in his role of prefect and even took over when the young werewolf was in the Hospital Wing recovering from the Full Moon, something which greatly impressed the teachers and Lily herself. However, James would barely speak to her unless it was necessary or related to school work, something that perplexed Lily a lot.

Unknown to James or really anyone else at the time, Lily had feelings for James early on just like he did for her. That was something that always confused her a lot since she thought that she also saw him as a bully. It was only that year that she started to see the real James Potter, not the one that was constantly pulling an act around Lily in the hope of impressing her. It was also the year where the war started taking a turn for the worse. Lily finally realised during that school year what the Marauders were truly doing. She finally realised that pretty much all of their previous victims were supporters of Voldemort and the Marauders were really bullying the bullies.

At the end of the year, Lily was pleased to see that James had changed and she didn’t feel uncomfortable having feelings for him anymore. She had even told herself that the next time he would ask her out, she would say yes but since he had barely spoken to her that year she didn’t know if it would happen. She remembered the words she had shouted at him the previous year and realised that James had probably lost hope of ever entering a relationship with her. Lily decided that summer that she would be the one to ask James out, when the opportunity would show up.

James had been utterly surprised when he learned that he had been made Head Boy. He hadn’t been sure about accepting the position at first since he didn’t consider himself a good role model but finally relented and accepted. Lily was thrilled to learn that James had become Head Boy and that she became Head Girl.

In their last year at Hogwarts, James and Lily took their role with stride. James proved himself to be the role model the teachers had seen in him and both James and Lily helped everyone they could in the school. Lily also worked on getting closer to James but it wasn’t working great at first because of the awkwardness between the two of them.

Things came to a head in early December when Lily asked James out on a date to Hogsmeade. James had looked at her like she had pretty much grown a second head. For a few moments, James was seriously thinking that Lily was pranking him. He barely stopped himself from shouting at her that her ‘joke’ wasn’t funny, it was sick. And he meant ‘sick’ as in the wrong way. 

Instead, James asked “A Date? To Hogsmeade? With me?” When Lily nodded, he added “Why? You don’t even like me, you hate me!” The tone of pain and sadness that came with the delivery of that last sentence made Lily realise just how much James had been affected by the words she had shouted to him in a burst of anger. 

She answered “James, I never hated you. I actually like you a lot but I didn’t realise so until last year. I like you but you were always acting like a prat around me and at the time, I saw your pranks as bullying and I hate bullying so my feelings for you heavily confused me. That day, when you took it out on Severus, it made me so angry because here was the boy I liked, bullying my childhood friend. I already had a bad day at that point and I pretty much took it all out on you and said things that I never thought of and for that, I’m sorry. I never realised how much it affected you and I want to apologise.”

“Don’t. Don’t apologize.” said James. Lily looked down with tears in her eyes. She looked like she was about to burst out crying. At that moment, she thought that James didn’t want to forgive her and felt like she had ruined her chances with him. Seeing the emotions in Lily’s eyes, James lifted her chin up with his right index finger and looked straight into her wet eyes. “Don’t apologize because you have nothing to apologize for. I’m actually grateful, in a way, for you telling me that you hated me. You saying that forced me to look back at how I had been acting ever since we came to Hogwarts and I realised that you had every reason to hate me. I saw how much of a bully I was and I was disgusted. I don’t want you to apologize because had you not told me that, I would probably still not have grown up or it would have taken me a lot more time. I’m just glad to learn that you never hated me in the first place.” he said with a smile. Lily smiled as well. “If your offer for a date is real, and a part of me think that I must be dreaming for thinking it is, then yes, I want to go to Hogsmeade with you.” In a burst of happiness, Lily kissed him on the lips before she realised what she was doing and pulled back, profusely apologising while blushing madly. James only answered by kissing her as well.

The news that James Potter and Lily Evans had become a couple shocked a lot of people around the school. The most shocked ones were Sirius Black and Severus Snape. Sirius thought that James and Lily were pranking him and had a hard time comprehending how James would even take part in this prank as he knew that Lily’s word were still hurting him. James had to take Sirius aside and tell him how it happened for Sirius to finally realise that it was real. He gave his best wishes to the couple and told James that if they ever got married, he had first-dibs on the role of James’ best-man.

Severus Snape, however, was angry. Not only was Snape angry that Lily was dating someone that wasn’t him, he was furious that it had to be Potter, of all people! He really couldn’t see how Lily and Potter had become a thing and had cornered her one day after Potions. Lily pretty much told him to bugger off and stop insulting her boyfriend. Lily held no illusions about Snape. She knew that Snape still saw James as the prankster/bully he was before their O.W.L. Exams, that Snape was a supporter of the Death Eaters and that Snape had feelings for her, just like James. Lily knew however that the way James and Snape felt about her were way different. While James felt true love for her and saw her as his equal in their relationship, Snape saw her as a way to make himself feel better. While James would often go out of his way to please her or surprise her, she knew that Snape would expect her to do everything for him. Anyway, Lily never loved Snape that way. She once loved him as the brother she never had but their relationship became strained in their third year and the end of fifth year she had broken it. Him calling her a ‘Mudblood’ had removed the blinds that were hiding most of his flaws from her.

James and Lily graduated in the summer of 1978. James joined the  Aurors while Lily started working on Masteries for both Potions and Charms with Slughorn and Flitwick respectively. That summer, James proposed to Lily who happily said ‘Yes’. Their wedding took place during the Christmas Holidays and they moved in a cottage in the same village as the family ancestral home: Godric’s Hollow. That had been the last time that Lily had seen her parents alive since they later died in a car crash during the young couple’s honeymoon.

At the funeral of Harold and Violet Evans, Lily was confronted by her older sister Petunia who somehow blamed her for what had happened to their parents. James Potter and Vernon Dursley had to drag their wives away from each other before their fight became worse. After all, it didn’t do good if the daughters of the deceased fought each other on the day of their funeral. When James and Lily came back to their cottage in Godric’s Hollow Lily burst out crying in her husband’s chest.

During the following year, Lily continued working on her two Masteries while James left the  Aurors to work for Albus Dumbledore’s Order of the Pheonix full time. Both him and Lily joined the Order but Lily didn’t go on missions as often as her husband. Together, they happened to end up in battle against Voldemort himself and his Death Eaters three times and always escaped with their lives.

Almost a year after Harold and Violet Evans passed away, Lily learned that she was pregnant. While both she and James were completely overjoyed that Lily had become pregnant and that they would have a child, they couldn’t help but feel a bit of fear. The war was still going on strongly and they didn’t know how safe their child would be and in what world it would grow-in. Their fear amplified when they received the visit of Albus Dumbledore early in the summer. James and Lily learned that their child had potentially been named in a prophecy about Voldemort’s defeat and that they were now at the top of the Dark Lord’s hit-list. James and Lily left their cottage and went to live to Potter Manor with Fleamont and Euphemia until they found a more secure and permanent solution. Lily also had to postpone her Masteries while James’ role in the Order was temporarily reduced so that both would have time to take care of their child.

On July 31 st 1980, Harry James Potter was born. Harry was named after Lily’s late father Harold. His middle name was James, following an old tradition in the Wizarding World where the first-born boy would be named after the father and first-born girl would be named after the mother. Sirius Black was named Harry’s godfather while Alice Longbottom was named his godmother.

In the middle of November, the couple decided to hide their cottage under the Fidelius Charm. They originally chose Sirius as their Secret-Keeper but at the last moment, they decided to change to Peter Pettigrew as he would be less obvious. Both Sirius and Peter were happy with the arrangement. Sirius because he didn’t have to fear that he would reveal their location under torture and Peter because he was proud to be trusted with something as important as this... or so they thought at the time. They told everyone else, even Albus Dumbledore and their old friend Remus that Sirius was the real Secret-Keeper.

In January of 1981, Lily and James prepared to go to Potter Manor for the day where the next planned meeting of the Order of the Pheonix would take place. It wasn’t often that the Order would meet at Potter Manor but it would usually do so when they had  an Order-wide meeting, meaning that every member available would be present.

“James? Are you ready to go?” asked Lily Potter. She was standing near the front door of the cottage and ready to leave. She was carrying Harry in her arms and both were wearing their winter clothes.

“I am Lily, I just need grab Harry’s bag and we can go.” shouted James from upstairs. A few seconds later, she heard him loudly climb down the stairs and he joined them. Just like his wife, he was wearing his winter clothes and had a canvas bag around his shoulders. The bag was filled with everything they would need to take care of their son while they were away from home. “I’m ready.” he said with a smile. “Did you put a warming charm on Harry?”

“Yes dear.” answered Lily, rolling her green eyes. The couple left the cottage and once they arrived on the walkway, which was outside of the wards of their house, they apparated away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter will later be the basis for a standalone canon-compliant prequel to this story.


	2. Chapter 2

The Potters Apparated at the start of the snowy walkway leading to Potter Manor. They could have Apparated nearer, inside the Manor or even used the  Floo or a Portkey since they were keyed into the wards. The couple however did not have a lot of opportunities and they wanted to use this one to take a walk outside.

“So, another long and boring meeting today...” said James once they had started to walk.

“James, you know that these meetings are important.” answered Lily, rolling her eyes.

“I know dear. I just can’t help but think that way. Why do they  alwaaays speeeak  sooo slooowly .”

Lily made a sound that sounded like a mix of a chuckle and a giggle. She often laughed at her husband’s antics. The couple hadn’t had it easy after their graduation because of the war but they had clung to each other during even the darkest of times. Lily never once regretted asking James out for a date. “It isn’t a History class with Professor Binns James, you’ll be alright.”

“I hope so...” said James before he took a deep breath. “I missed the smell of winter.”

“The smell of winter?”

“Yep. You never realised that each season has a specific smell?”

“I didn’t but now that you mention it...”

“Winter smell icy and cold, obviously. Spring smell like flowers and fruits and do often smell a bit wet, Summer smell like heat and pavement and Fall smell like leaves and rain.”

Lily snorted. “If you say so, James.”

“ Well, it does!” he answered with made Lily roll her eyes again. After a few more minutes of walking, James asked “Do you know if the  Longbottoms will be present today? They weren’t last month.”

“Yes. Alice told me yesterday that she, Frank and little Neville would come. I can’t wait to see our godson...” she said, smiling.

Arriving at the Manor, James knocked on the door. They didn’t have to wait long before the door opened and a tall and thin woman, with hair that was seemingly fighting between being black and being white, opened the door. “James! Lily! Harry! Come on in!”

“Hey Mum!” greeted James while Lily said “Hi Euphemia!” The younger Potters entered the Manor.

“ Fleamont , they are here!” shouted James’ mother toward the hall before she turned back to the young couple and looked in admiration at Harry. “And here is my grandson.”

“Harry fell asleep shortly before he left. I don’t think he will wake up before quite some time.” said Lily.

“Not like there is a lot of chances of him being awake with the meeting going on.”

“James, not again... You know how important these meetings are.” complained Euphemia. “Anyway, I have a feeling that today won’t be boring at all!”

“Yes Mum, I know.” said James with a roll of the eyes. He often complained how boring these meetings were but he himself knew how important they were. He was mostly saying it as a running joke.

Lily gave Harry to Euphemia while the couple removed their coats and winter hats and stowed them in the wardrobe in the entrance hall. James’ black hair had become even more messier than usual after he removed his winter hat while Lily’s auburn hair stayed perfectly straight. James took back Harry and together they walked toward the hall of the Manor. The Hall of Potter Manor was slightly under a third of the size of the Great Hall of Hogwarts but it was big enough for the Potters. Actually, the Potters generally preferred small and cozy homes which was one of the reasons why James and Lily stayed at their cottage instead of Potter Manor.

Entering the Hall, they saw that they were the last ones to arrive. The members of the Orders were all talking to each other in small groups. Euphemia walked toward one group while James and Lily joined another. They were Frank and Alice Longbottom talking to Sirius, Remus and Layla Spinster, a  muggleborn witch who had attended Hogwarts a year under them before she became Sirius’s girlfriend after her graduation. Peter Pettigrew wasn’t there but it was expected as he had to take care of his sick mother. Frank had the five months old Neville in his arms.

“Ah and they are finally here! Prongs, Flower and  Prongslet finally gracing us with their noble presences!”

“Well greetings to you too Padfoot,  you sarcastic shit!” answered Lily before the group burst out into laughter. “How are you doing Remus? We haven’t seen you in quite some time...”

“I’m fine, personally. I just came back from my last assignment and...” he started before glancing worryingly at James, Sirius and Frank.

“And..?” pushed James.

“ Imighthavemetsomeone .” said Remus quickly and quietly before he blushed like a teenager.

“What?” said the men while the women said “Oh!”

“What is it?” asked Sirius to his girlfriend.

Layla said “Remus just said that he met someone!”

Sirius, Frank and James all looked at Remus before James said “Moony, you old wolf!” with a tone of pride in his voice.

“Who’s the lucky lady?” teased Frank.

“Maria McKinnon.”

“Maria McKinnon? As in the younger sister of Marlene McKinnon?” said Alice with surprise.

“Yes.” answered Remus with the head high, showing that he wouldn’t let the teasing affect him.

“Are you together then?” asked Lily.

“Yes.”

“Congrats Moony!” said James. “I would pat you on the back but I have Harry in my arms.”

“That’s fine.” laughed Remus.

“Gather around everyone! Everyone takes a seat!” shouted  Fleamont from the other side of the hall. As the host of the meeting,  Fleamont sat on one end of the table. On his left were in order: Euphemia, James, Lily (and Harry) and on his right were Remus, Sirius, Layla, Alice and Frank. At the other end of the table sat Albus Dumbledore and the various seat between  Fleamont and Albus were filled by members of the Order. The table could seat around forty guests and almost every seat was taken. Only around six seats were left available, including the two on Lily’s left side. Lily couldn’t help but feel like they were reserved for someone. She just didn’t know who yet.

“Let’s open the meeting by noting that today is the 15 th of January 1981. Now, the first order of business...” started Dumbledore.

James Potter might make a lot of jokes about how boring the  monthly Order-wide meetings were but he was also right. Usually, all of the important stuff would be talked about in the first thirty minutes of the meeting, leaving a few hours of boredom for most members.

The Potters and their friends were being bored to death. James, Sirius, Alice and Layla had all fallen into light sleep. Remus, Frank, Lily and the elder Potters managed to stay awake.  Remus’ eyes were heavily blinking while Frank and Lily kept awake by quietly playing with their toddlers.  Fleamont and Euphemia were just too much used to these meetings to fall asleep in the middle of them. It was a good thing that Dumbledore was at the other end of the table.

Suddenly, a bright golden light flashed consecutively three times on top of the table. Everyone withdrew their wands and stayed on guard, including the few that were asleep mere seconds ago. The first two times the golden light  flashed, a heavy mass landed on top of the table. The third time, did but the light stayed on and started to slowly dim down. As the golden lights dimmed down, the masses were recognised as being actual persons standing on the table.

Albus Dumbledore had the Elder Wand pointed at the duo and asked loudly “Who are you? Identify yourself!”

The lights had now dimmed enough that half of the table was now able to see that the duo in question were composed of a man and a woman and that the woman had a young baby in her arms. Lily couldn’t help but feel like the man was familiar. The man then spoke.

“Damn Hermione, we arrived in the middle of an Order meeting!”

“Crap.” said the woman named Hermione.

“How did you breach the wards?” asked  Fleamont with anger. “Only a Potter could possibly  Apparate in the Manor and... oh bloody hell...” he finished while everyone else gasped. The light had finally gone out and everyone could recognise the man. He looked like a clone of James! There were a few differences however. The main one was the lightning bolt scar. The man was also a bit smaller and skinnier than James and his facial features looked slightly different. And his eyes were green, just like Lily. Actually, they were the exact same eyes.

“What the fuck!?” shouted Sirius in shock.

“What in the bloody hell...” started Frank...

“Hello...” said the woman, Hermione, shyly.

James looked at his ‘twin’ with wide eyes and asked “Who are you? If we weren’t the last of the Potters, I would say that you are family but...”

“Well, you see...” interrupted the man,  “You aren’t completely wrong. We are indeed family. Does someone have Veritaserum ? We are ready to reveal our identities under the truth serum so that you guys can be sure we aren’t lying. We have a pretty unbelievable story to tell.”

“We do, just give us your wands first.” said Albus.

“Sure, as long as you don’t curse us.” said the man before he withdrew his wand and threw it on the table. Albus’ eyes widened for a few instants when he recognised the wand. It was the brother wand to Tom Riddle’s. The woman also threw her wand before they jumped down the table. They each took a seat on Lily’s left. “I’ll go first.” said the man when Alastor Moody arrived with the bottle.

Alastor put six drops, double the usual dose, before asking the question everyone wanted to know.

“What is your name?”

The man’s eyes glazed before he answered “Harry James Potter.”

Pandemonium .

There were various shouts of “He’s lying!” or “That’s not possible!” or anything similar which made baby Harry and Neville wake up screaming. Their parents quickly worked on calming them.

“SILENCE!” shouted Hermione. When everyone shut up, she looked at Alastor and said “Continue.”

“What is the date of your birth?”

“31st of July 1980”

Again, nearly everyone started shouting again. The only ones who didn’t talk were Alastor, Albus, Hermione and the Potters. James and Lily were alternating between looking at Harry the adult and Harry the baby. Their eyes were wide open. They didn't need any more confirmation to know that the man sitting beside them was their son who had somehow travelled back in time.

Hermione banged the table with her fist three times before she shouted again “OI! How many times do we have to tell you? SILENCE!”

“He’s lying!”

“He can’t lie, you bittering idiot!” shouted back Alastor Moody. “He’s under the influence of SIX drops of Veritaserum which is double the usual dosage. It’s impossible to lie under so much Veritaserum!”

“You can lie under  Veritaserum !” shouted Sirius.

“Only if you are a Master  Occlumens and only if you received less than four drops Sirius!” shouted back Hermione. “Harry received six ones which I’m sure Alastor did under the good deed of Constant Vigilance!”

“Damn right lass.” answered Alastor before she looked at everyone else and said “Now that you know he can’t lie, will you all shut up and let me finish?” When he received a few nods from the Order, he asked “What are the full names of your parents.”

“James  Fleamont Potter and Lily Julia Potter née Evans.” finished Harry before Alastor gave him the antidote. Now that they knew that the man couldn’t lie, they understood the truth. This was James and Lily’s son. And he was the same age as his parents. He had travelled back in time!

“Your turn lass.” said Alastor to Hermione. Hermione answered by opening her mouth. With six drops in her system, her eyes glazed over. “What is your name?”

“Hermione Jean Potter, née Granger.” he said which resulted in gaps from the Potters, excluding the older Harry. She was their (grand-)daughter-in-law! The Potters now looked at the baby in her arms, was that...

“What is the date of your birth?”

“19 th of September 1979”

“What is your relationship with Harry James Potter?”

“He’s my husband.” she answered. Harry looked proud and smug.

“What are the full names of your parents?”

“Daniel Adrian Granger and Emma Geraldine Granger, née Wilkins.”

“Who are you holding in your arms?”

“Rose Lily Potter, my daughter.” said Hermione which resulted in two squeaks of delight from Euphemia and Lily. The older Harry looked at them, grinning with pride. Alastor gave her the antidote as well.

“I have a granddaughter?” asked Lily with awe.

“I have a great-granddaughter?” asked Euphemia with the same voice.

“I have a grand-goddaughter?” asked Sirius before everyone looked at him. “What?” he said. The Potter side of the table burst out laughing.

Harry quickly realised however that his mother wasn’t laughing however. She was looking at him with a lot of emotion reflected in her eyes. “Look at you... You are all grown-up!”

Harry smiled. “Hey Mum...”

Lily put the younger Harry in James’ arms before she raised to her feet and threw herself in the older ones’ arms. Harry barely had time to raise up before he had to catch Lily. Both mother and son were the exact same height. Harry melted in his mother’s embrace. It was the first time, in his memory at least, that he being hugged by his mother and was hugging back. He felt tears slowly leaking out of his eyes and he could just feel that her mother wasn’t in any better state. He guessed that Hermione probably had tears in her eyes as well since she knew how much that hug meant for Harry. Hermione put her available hand on his back, slowly rubbing it to show her support.

“I-I love you Mum.” he whispered in Lily’s ear. She tightened her hold on his body and Harry heard her softly crying in his left shoulder. “I love you too Harry...” she muttered between sobs. Harry then felt a hand on his right shoulder and he looked around, still holding Lily. James was looking at him with pride. Just like Lily, he had tears in his eyes. “Hey son.”

“Hey Prongs.” answered Harry with emotion. Both of them chuckled at Harry’s use of James’ Marauder nickname. He noticed that Remus was now the one holding his younger counterpart. James took both his son and wife in his arms. Harry wasn’t even sure that Lily noticed as she was still sobbing on his shoulder, although she had calmed down.

“And, I’m guessing you are my daughter-in-law?” asked James to Hermione.

“Yes Mr. Potter.”

“Please, don’t call me Mr. Potter. Mr. Potter is my old man there.” he said smirking before he gave a nod toward his father. “Just call me James.”

“Just James then.” smiled Hermione. “Do you want to hold Rose while we introduce ourselves to the others?”

Lily suddenly lifted her head up from Harry’s shoulder and quickly said “I want to hold her!” before James could even answer. Hermione chuckled while she handed Rose to her grandmother. Lily looked at Rose with awe before she said “I’m twenty years old, nearly twenty-one and I already have a granddaughter!” she said which earned a few chuckles around the table.

“Don’t forget our son. He’s five months old and he already has a daughter!” said James while looking at Rose. A few people laughed.

Meanwhile, Harry and Hermione had approached the next generation of Potters. “Hi, you are my grandparents, right?” asked Harry.  Fleamont raised an eyebrow. Shouldn’t Harry already know that? Euphemia however just took one look at Harry before she took him in his arms. She was nearly as happy at seeing the adult Harry that Lily was. Unlike her however, she wasn’t crying emotionally. Actually, she looked like she was giggling!

“Are you alright?” asked Harry,  mildly amused.

“Don’t worry about that son.” answered Fleamont. He had the same grin that Hermione had often see Harry wear, one that she had just noticed on James’ face as well when he was looking at Rose. “She usually giggles like a teenager when she’s happy.”

“Fleamont!” answered Euphemia, blushing slightly.

“And she blushes like one as well!” he added which made Euphemia slap him on the arm. The same type of friendly slap Hermione often gave her husband when she was trying not to laugh at something  stupid he had said.

“Can we see our great-granddaughter?” asked Euphemia.

“Of course!” answered Hermione. “She’s currently in Lily’s arms.” she said. The elder Potter couple nodded before they went toward James and Lily. Harry and Hermione were now meeting Remus, Sirius, Frank, Alice and Layla.

“Hello Moony and Padf oot. I’m guessing you two are Frank and Alice since you both look a lot like our good friend Neville Longbottom.” said Harry. Frank and Alice only nodded in  answ er , grinning. Harry then looked at Layla and said “I’m sorry, but I don’t think I know you...”

“I’m Layla Spinster.” she answered before offering her hand. Both Harry and Hermione shook it. 

“Nice to meet you Layla.” said Hermione.

“Is that me?” asked Harry with wide eyes, looking at the toddler in  Remus’ arms.

“Yep!” answered Sirius. “My godson, Harry  Prongslet Potter!”

“Aww, you were such a cute baby!” said Hermione to Harry.

“Hermione!” gasped in shock a red-faced Harry while the others laughed. “And that’s not my middle name Sirius!”

“Maybe Padfoot will name one of his children after his Animagus form.” said Remus which made both Sirius and Layla blush.

“Oh!” Hermione said suddenly in understanding, looking between Sirius and Layla. "Are you two dating?”

“Oh yes they are!” answered Remus with amusement.

“And what about you and Maria?” shot back Sirius. It was Remus’ turn to blush.

Harry and Hermione’s eyes widened. “Moony,  you old wolf!” said Harry with a tone of pride. Neither he nor Hermione understood why everyone else in their group burst out laughing.

“If we had any doubts that he’s James son, I think they can be put to rest!” laughed Layla.

At the look of confusion on Harry and Hermione’s faces, Alice told them “James said the exact same words in the exact same tone of voice when we learned about his relationship a few hours ago.”

“Ah.” laughed Harry and Hermione.

Meanwhile, James, Lily,  Fleamont and Euphemia were all admiring Rose. She was currently starting to wake up.

“She  looks like Hermione but she seems to have the infamous messy Potter hair.” said  Fleamont .

“Yes, but see, it seems to be the same colour as Hermione’s hair so that’s a Potter with brown hair!” said Euphemia with a tone of amusement.

Rose woke up and opened her eyes. Lily gasped loudly. Hermione heard her and came toward the group. Harry and the rest followed her. Rose looked back at Lily with bright green eyes. Her father’s eyes. Her eyes.

“Lily, she has your eyes!” said James with surprise.

“I can see that.” answered Lily, smiling.

Once the rest arrived, Hermione smiled and said “Rose Lily Potter. We named her following the apparent naming tradition of the Evans family and also gave her the name of her grandmother.” She heard a few  gasps from their friends who were now just noticing Rose’s eyes.

When Rose heard her mother’s voice, she looked at her and extended her arms toward Hermione and started babbling. Getting the message that Rose was unknowing sending, Lily gave her back to her mother before she said “Thank you.” with emotion. She didn’t need to specify that it was both about allowing her to hold Rose and naming her after herself.

“No worries.” grinned Hermione. Lily took back the younger Harry in her arms.

Someone behind them cleared their throat. It was Albus Dumbledore.

“While I do not wish to interrupt this family reunion, we have to ask. Why did you travel back in time?”

“You better sit down, it’s a long story.”


	3. Chapter 3

Everyone who had been standing took back their seat. Harry and Hermione took the two available ones on Lily's left. Dumbledore moved from the other end of the table and sat in one of the empty seats around the middle on the opposite side of Harry and Hermione so that he could be closer to the time travellers.

“First, I have a question to the Marauders. Where is Wormtail?” asked Harry. The time travellers were pleased to see that he wasn’t present.

“Damn, you are right! I should go tell him that my son has travelled back in time!” said James proudly, slowly raising from his seat.

“Don’t!” shouted both Harry and Hermione.

“Why not?”

“I’m sorry to tell you that Peter Pettigrew is a Death Eater.” said Hermione.

“What!?” shouted a dozen people in shock.

“It is true. Peter joined Voldemort’s side around the time of my birth.” added Harry.

“No!” shouted the three Marauders, pain evident in their voices. Lily looked at Harry with shock. Harry knew that Peter was their Secret-Keeper and that Lily had just realised that they had never been safe at their cottage. He wasn’t sure if the Marauders had that fact realised yet.

“ Wormtail betrayed us?” whispered Sirius.

“I can’t believe it!” said James. Remus was just looking down, holding his head in his hands. The time travellers knew how much his friends meant to Remus and couldn’t imagine how he was feeling, having just discovered that one of his best friends had turned to the enemy and betrayed them.

“Let’s tell our story, shall we?” Hermione said to her husband. 

Harry nodded. “Our story starts a few weeks before my birth. When Professor Dumbledore was giving an interview for the post of Divination teacher, a legitimate prophecy was made.”

Albus immediately stopped Harry. “You know of the prophecy, Mr. Potter?”

“What prophecy?” asked a few people.

“Of course, I do. I’m the one named in it after all.” answered Harry, rolling his eyes. “And yes, I’ll reveal it to everyone here. The prophecy doesn’t matter anymore since we will release my younger self from the role. I personally already fulfilled it once, I can do it again.”

Only Albus, Frank, Alice, Lily, James and Sirius reacted to that statement. They all looked at Harry with awe.

“Can someone tell us what is that blasted prophecy?” shouted Alastor.

_ “The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies....” _ recited Harry. “To explain it, the prophecy state that a boy born at the end of July of parents who defied Voldemort three times would have a chance to kill him. That prophecy could apply to two children: Harry Potter, so me, or Neville Longbottom.” The lack of reaction from the Potters and Longbottoms showed to the others that they were already aware of the prophecy.

“So, you killed You-Know-Who?” asked someone that Harry didn’t recognise.

“Yep.” said Harry. “Fun story but we will come back to that later.” he said nonchalantly. Hermione only rolled her eyes. “So, the prophecy was made to Dumbledore but while that was happening, a Death Eater overheard the first two lines. He was kicked out before he could hear more but the Death Eater told the prophecy to his master and Voldemort decided to target the two families who defied him three times and had a child born at the end of July: The Potters and the Longbottoms. The Death Eater who reported the prophecy eventually learned that Voldemort decided to target the Potters and decided to defect to our side. That Death Eater’s name? Severus Snape.”

“Snape made Voldemort target us!?” instantly shouted both James and Frank angrily.

Harry nodded sadly. “The worst part is that when he heard that we were the targets, he pleaded with Voldemort to spare Mum’s life. When he realised that Voldemort probably wouldn’t give a shit, he turned to Professor Dumbledore and again, pleaded that he kept Mum safe. Not Dad, not me. Just Mum. I learned that the reason why he did this was because he was in love with Mum, and probably hoped to take her on the rebound of losing us.” he finished with disgust evident in his voice.

“That bastard!” shouted James once more. The Marauders, Layla and the Longbottoms then started launching a bunch of incomprehensible obscenities but Harry quickly stopped them. “Oi! There are children here!”

“Sorry.” whispered James.

Harry then looked at his mother with concern. He knew that she and Snape had once been best friends but stopped when Snape called her a ‘Mudblood’ which Lily saw as a betrayal from her oldest friend. It was one thing insulting your best friend with one of the most vulgar words in the dictionary, but it was something else to set loose a madman and worst Dark Lord in the last few centuries against them. Surprisingly to Harry however was that Lily didn’t look sad, she looked utterly furious.

“ Arg ! I’ll kill him!” she shouted to Harry’s shock.

“Hey, hey, hey, Mum... calm down, please.” he whispered to her. Lily took one look at her time travelling son before her anger visibly deflated and she was left very close to crying. Seeing the state of Lily, Harry took her in his arms and comforted her.

While Harry was embracing his mother, Hermione continued the story.

“I don’t know exactly why it took so long but  Wormtail eventually revealed the location of Potter Cottage to Voldemort.”

“Wait.” asked Dumbledore. “How could Peter reveal the location where the Potters were hidden if Sirius is the Secret-Keeper?”

“About that,” started James. “We knew that everyone would suspect Sirius to be our Secret-Keeper because of how close we are. Our original plan was indeed to take Sirius but we changed it at the last minute.”

Sirius continued. “When they told me that they wanted me as a Secret-Keeper, I refused. I was too scared that I would reveal their location under torture so I instead proposed the idea of making Peter the Secret-Keeper and I would act as a decoy. That’s what we did and we told everyone that I was the Secret-Keeper. If I knew that he was a traitor I would never have proposed that idea!”

“I know Padfoot.” said James with sadness.

“On Halloween 1981,” continued Hermione, “Voldemort attacked the cottage. He first fought James and then killed him.” she said and everyone heard the sudden sobs from Euphemia who was being comforted by Fleamont. “Then, he went upstairs and entered the nursery where Lily and Harry had taken refuge. Since Snape had pleaded for her life, he gave Lily the option to get out of the way and live.”

“Did he really expect Lily, a mother, to just give up like that and not protect you, her child?” asked Fleamont to Harry, shocked.

Harry answered. “Voldemort doesn’t understand love and his worse fear is death itself. Voldemort doesn’t understand why a mother would sacrifice herself for her child, especially when the other option is to be killed. So yes, he thought that Mum would get out of the way. He was also offering her the chance to stay alive because Snape pleaded Voldemort to spare her. But of course, she didn’t.”

“No, she didn’t.” continued Hermione. “He killed Lily there, in front of Harry who was in his crib. He then turned his wand on Harry and shot the Killing Curse at him.” he said. This time, it was Lily who was crying and being comforted by a very white-faced James. She was holding tightly on baby Harry, like she feared that if she released her grip, he would die right then and there.

Harry cleared his throat to get everyone’s attention before he moved the hair away from his forehead. Everyone saw the scar and gasped, recognising what it was. “...and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal,” said Harry. “Because Mum sacrificed herself for me, she unknowingly created a blood protection based on her love for me which was strong enough to deflect back the Killing Curse. I’m sure that Professor Dumbledore would agree with my statement that Love is one of the most powerful type of magic that we know of.”

Professor Dumbledore’s eyes were twinkling. “I am guessing that it is ‘The Power the Dark Lord knows not’ from the prophecy?”

“Yes, it is the power from the prophecy although I didn’t kill Voldemort with love, obviously.” which made a few people chuckle. “Without Love however, but most importantly without Hermione’s love for me, I don’t think I would have been able to fulfil it.” he said, looking with loving eyes at Hermione. Hermione kissed him on the lips which made Lily and Euphemia smile.

“What happened after... you know what?” asked  Fleamont , unable to mention the murder of his son and daughter-in-law and attempted murder of his grandson.

“The Killing Curse rebounded on Voldemort and he was defeated." continued Hermione. “At that point, Harry was the only living being left alive. Something important happened at that moment but we won’t talk about it until later in our story.” Harry shivered, remembering that he had once been one of Voldemort’s Horcruxes. “Harry stayed alone in his crib until someone arrived at the house. That person was Rubeus Hagrid.” At the mention of their half-giant friend, Harry realised that he wasn’t currently present at the meeting. “While Hagrid was looking for survivors, Sirius had gone and looked for  Wormtail , making sure he was still safe. When he saw that Pettigrew was missing, seemingly having left his safehouse without a fight, Sirius realised that something must have happened and immediately left with his flying bike in direction of Potter Cottage. He arrived not long after and landed in front of the cottage. Inside, Hagrid had found Harry and brought him downstairs. Dumbledore had asked Hagrid to bring Harry to him so that they could check on his health to make sure he was okay.”

Harry continued. “Hagrid told Sirius that I was the only survivor and that he had been ordered to bring me to Dumbledore. Sirius originally wanted to take me with him but he realised that it was probably better for now that my health was checked. He let Hagrid take me to Dumbledore and left him his bike. Sirius decided at that point to go and look for  Wormtail , realising that he had betrayed us.”

“What?” asked Lily. “You are his godfather! You should have gone with him!”

“Don’t blame him for his future-self's actions.” said James to his wife before Sirius could say something. “However, if a similar event come to pass, I hope that will take care of Harry first before jumping into revenge, Padfoot.” he warned.

“I will.” promised Sirius.

“Thank you.” said Lily.

Hermione continued. “From that point on, we don’t really know what happened until the next day. On November 2 nd , seemingly once Harry had been checked by a healer and made sure that he was alright, Dumbledore decided to bring him to his only family remaining.”

“That doesn’t make sense.” said  Fleamont , frowning. “Harry didn’t seem to recognise us when we met him.”

“I’m sorry but from what we know, at that point in time you had both passed away from Dragon Pox.” said Harry. Euphemia palled but Fleamont didn’t react instantly. Once he did, he said “Well, we know now to take all the necessary precautions then.”

“So, like I said, Dumbledore decided to bring him to his only family remaining. The protection Lily created with her sacrifice was still active and Dumbledore realised that it would be a powerful defence but the power of the protection would slowly diminish unless Harry stayed with blood-relatives of Lily.”

It clicked in Lily’s mind. “No... he didn’t!” she said, looking angry at Albus.

“Did what?” asked James, concerned.

“Were you raised by my sister and whale of a husband?” asked Lily to Harry. Harry only looked down, confirming her suspicions. “They hate magic! Why would you send a magical child to live there?” she said to Dumbledore. “My sister does not even talk to me!” She looked back at Harry. “How did they treat you?”

“Not well.” is all that he answered. Hermione looked at him with concern before she whispered to him. “Harry, they are your family, your parents. They have a right to know, my love.” Remus, with his improved hearing was the only one to hear Hermione outside of the couple. He looked at them with a lot of worry.

“I don’t want them to know, they will blame themselves.” he whispered back.

“If Rose had been raised by them, would you want to know the truth about how she was raised, even if you didn’t like it?”

Seeing her point, Harry whispered “Tell them, please.” he pleaded. “I already have a hard time talking about it, I don’t think I’m capable of telling it to my own parents.”

Hermione nodded before saying “I will keep it simple since it is neither the time nor place for this but Harry was pretty much abused by the Dursleys.” she started. Lily and Euphemia gasped loudly. The Potters and their friends all looked at Adult Harry and Baby Harry with a white face. “There wasn’t really any physical abuse, at least from Vernon and Petunia but there was a lot of emotional abuse. They would also make him do all the chores in the house, barely feed him, always and I mean always give him hand-me-downs from his cousin. Hand-me-downs aren’t a bad thing, in normal circumstances but Harry’s cousin was four to five time his size and they only gave his clothes to him once they were old, used and weary. And his bedroom...” She stopped and looked at Harry. Harry only nodded, telling her to continue before setting his head on her shoulder. “And his bedroom, for the first ten years, was the cupboard under the stairs in the entrance hall.” she finished. 

Many around the table gasped and looked at the older Harry in pity. Just like when they had revealed  Wormtail’s treason, the friends of the Potters started angrily shouting abuse at the Dursleys. Harry didn’t meet their eyes as he loathed people who looked at him with pity. He instead looked for his family. James and Sirius looked beyond angry and were looking like they would jump to their feet at any moment and go find the Dursleys. The only thing that kept James from doing so was that he knew that there was nothing he could do. His baby hadn’t lived through that yet and his time-travelling counterpart was now an adult with his own child. Sirius however had to be restrained by Remus and Layla. Instead, James comforted Lily who was slowly crying, still holding the younger Harry strongly. Fleamont did the same for Euphemia while Hermione rubbed her hand in Harry’s back before kissing him on the cheek, something that always relaxed him.

Harry cleared his throat loudly. It was his turn to continue. “Now, I’m sure Sirius and Remus are wondering where were they the whole time...” he started which made both of them nod. “Well for a start, at the time of the attack, Remus was on an Order mission out of the country so he didn’t learn of what happened until a few days later. Sirius, as you know, went to look for Wormtail. The problem however is that everyone believed that Sirius was the Secret-Keeper.”

“Ahh F-”

“Language Sirius!” said Euphemia, Lily and Hermione at the same time.  Fleamont , James and Harry all snickered which earned them slaps at the back of the head by their  wifes . Many people around the table laughed at the antics of the Potters.

“Anyway, so you now had Peter Pettigrew being chased by Sirius who was himself being chased by the Order and the  Aurors . The inevitable confrontation came the day after I was left at the Dursleys when Sirius found Peter. When Peter noticed that Sirius had found him, he started to flee but Sirius quickly caught on him. Before Sirius could say anything however, Peter shouted “WHY SIRIUS? WHY DID YOU BETRAY THE POTTERS?” before he sent a blasting hex on a  gaz line, blowing up the whole street. Peter then cut his own finger and escaped in the sewers thanks to his Rat Animagus form.”

“Bloody hell” muttered a few people.

“Sirius, who had already suffered too many emotional blows in such a short amount of time, lost it and started laughing hysterically. Now, I think you can imagine how the  Aurors reacted when they arrived on the scene of an absolute carnage. Twelve Muggles dead, many, many others injured, one finger being the only found remnant of the wizard known as Peter Pettigrew and Sirius Black, the Potter Secret-Keeper, member of the Noble and Ancient House of Black who are known supporters of Voldemort, on his knees and laughing.” said Harry. “Add to that the witnesses which would say that they heard Pettigrew blame Sirius for your deaths and the hysterical Sirius muttering about how it was his fault that my parents were dead and it’s easy to realise where it’s going.”

“They arrested me?” deduced Sirius.

Harry nodded. “And threw you into Azkaban without a trial. Literally everyone believed that you were guilty.” Sirius shivered. Layla’s eyes widened. When Harry had said that he didn’t know who she was, she had guessed that something must have happened in her and Sirius’ relationship. Now she knew: Sirius had been sent to Azkaban. And if Harry was telling the truth then it meant that everyone, which must include her, believed that he was guilty of being a Death Eater. She felt bad and embarrassed even if it technically didn’t happen yet. And it never will now that Harry and Hermione had told them the truth.

“A few days later,” continued Harry, “Remus came back into the country, only to learn that Mum and Dad were dead, that I had been exiled from the Wizarding World and that Sirius had supposedly betrayed us and then killed Peter. Remus, who had problems just holding on a job because of his ‘furry little problem’ and lost what he considered being his only family outside of his parents, got into a depression that he didn’t come out until years later.”

The Marauders and Lily all looked at each other. It was crazy how wrong things could go in such a short period of time.

Hermione said “Now, things stayed steady for the next ten years. The Wizarding World celebrated the Death of Voldemort, not that he was actually dead of course, while Harry was living at the Dursleys.”

“I never knew my real story during those ten years. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon told me that Mum and Dad died in a car crash while Dad was drunk-driving. They also kept saying that you were good-for-nothing peoples who didn’t even have a job.” said Harry with anger. James and Fleamont shared the same face as Harry. Lily had a mix of sadness and anger on her face while Euphemia just looked resigned.

“Around the time of my eleventh birthday, I received my Hogwarts letter. Of course, the Dursleys didn’t want me to go at Hogwarts but that didn’t stop them from trying. They kept burning the letters until Vernon had enough and drove us away from the house. We eventually ended up in a shack on a small island in the sea. That didn’t work either since hold and behold, Hagrid came and gave me my letter personally.”

“He must have scared them.” said Remus.

“Yes, he broke down the door, then politely asked for a cup of tea.” said Harry snickering. “When Vernon threatened him with a double-barrel rifle, Hagrid just bent the barrel until the weapon couldn’t be used anymore. Hagrid eventually explained to me about the wizarding world once he learned that I didn’t know anything and vented his anger at the Dursleys. At the end, Vernon ended up insulting Dumbledore in front of Hagrid.”

A few people laughed, knowing how defensive Hagrid could be about Dumbledore.

Hermione said “You never told me how he reacted.”

“He withdrew his purple umbrella which had his broken wand in it and transfigured a pig-tail on Dudley’s bottom.”

“Oh Hagrid.” said Dumbledore, shaking his head while the rest of the order was laughing.

“I wish I could have seen this!” said Sirius.

“I can give you the memory for you to watch in a pensieve if you want.” proposed Harry. Sirius’ eyes just lit up in interest.

“What happened next?” asked James.

“The next day was my birthday and we visited Diagon Alley. It was a nice day and it was the first time I received a birthday gift from someone.” said Harry, immediately sobering people up. Harry, however, smiled. “A snowy owl, Hedwig.” he said with nostalgia.

“I loved Hedwig.” said Hermione, smiling. Harry once had a very hard time remembering the casualties of war such as Hedwig as he would constantly tear up at the thought of their deaths but a few years married to Hermione managed to heal the various emotional wounds Harry had suffered during his teenage years. Harry had then been able to look back and remembered the good things instead of the bad things.

“A month later and we were on the Hogwarts Express, in direction of Hogwarts! It’s where I made my first ever friend of my age, Ron Weasley.” he said before both he and Hermione frowned. 

Harry remembered what happened when he and Hermione started dating shortly after the war. The duo had realised the love they shared for each other during the Horcrux Hunt after Ron had left and before he came back. Harry had actually had been  harbouring feelings for Hermione ever since the end of their third year, but as a 13-years-old who grew up without love, he hadn’t been able to recognise them until a year later, by which point Ron had made it obvious that he had feelings for Hermione as well. Since Harry was a noble git and didn’t want to compete against one of his best friends for their other best friend’s love, and since he felt that pursuing Hermione romantically would be like betraying Ron, he had ignored his feelings.

Hermione had been in the same boat. She also had started falling in love with Harry during their third year, more precisely when they were on the back of Buckbeak the  Hippogriff , flying to rescue Sirius. She didn’t think Harry shared her feelings but since Ron was interested in her, she had decided to pursue him romantically. Hermione, while she liked Ron, never fell in love with him. When Harry realised that Hermione was interested in Ron, he had started moving on and eventually dated Ginny Weasley during their sixth year.

During the Horcrux Hunt, Harry decided to just admit his feelings. He didn’t know that she felt the same way but wanted to tell her either way. Once he did, he learned that Hermione actually shared his feelings and that the only reason she had pursued Ron was because she didn’t think that she had a chance with him. Harry had laughed when he realised that both had settled on Weasleys when they thought that they couldn’t have the other. While they wanted to do nothing but snog each other, Harry and Hermione decided that they would wait until the war was over to pursue a relationship so that they wouldn’t be distracted during the Hunt.

During the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry felt his heart broke when he saw Ron kissing Hermione but he noticed Hermione’s semi-horrified, semi- disgusted face and realised that she didn’t want to kiss him and felt embarrassed. Harry suffered the same fate once Voldemort had been defeated, Ginny throwing herself at him and kissing him. Just like Harry had saw Hermione’s reaction, Hermione saw his and realised that Ginny had done the same to him than Ron had done to her.

The duo quickly became a couple in the days following the end of the war. Ginny was disappointed and sad that Harry had moved on and started dating Hermione but after she learned of the truth, she became happy for them and stayed their friend. Ron, on the other hand, was completely angry and screamed and shouted at the couple. At one point, he even called Hermione a ‘slut’, breaking forever their friendships just like Severus Snape had once done in regards to Lily Evans.

Ron had tried to apologise in the next few days but for Harry and Hermione who had already been backstabbed a few times by Ron, most noticeably during the Triwizard Tournament, the Horcrux Hunt and the whole Firebolt Fiasco (in which Harry had taken Ron’s side, forever haunting him.), it was just too much and stopped being friends with Ron. Ron had been invited to their wedding, mostly because all the other Weasleys would attend but Ron never showed up. Since then, Ron became a sore point for Harry and Hermione.

Harry quickly remembered where he was and more importantly, when he was when he heard the love of his life, his wife, Hermione Potter, start talking again.

“It is also on the Hogwarts Express where I first met Harry.” she said, looking at him with a smile. Harry honestly didn’t really know why she smiled. Sure, it was when they met which was a very special occasion but he remembered that he and Ron hadn’t been great to her at first. And yes, he never insulted her or anything but he remembered how Ron had talked about her in her back and how he, who had just got his first ever friend of his age, didn't challenge anything he said. Hermione must have seen the conflict in Harry’s eyes because she kissed him before smiling at him reassuringly.

Harry smiled back, deciding to remember the good things instead of the bad things. “She was helping Neville Longbottom try to find his toad which had escaped during the train ride. She was a bit bossy...” he started, which Hermione answered with another slap on the arm which made Lily and Euphemia chuckle “but it is understandable since she had just been thrown in a completely new world, didn’t know anyone and was trying to fit in.” he quickly added, hoping to make up for the first part of the sentence. 

“Good catch up.” teased Hermione. Harry just kissed her on the nose. 

“Now that I think of it, our first year was probably the most normal one we had.” 

“Oh yes, because mountain trolls, three-headed dogs, devil snare and Voldemort are all part of the normal experience of a First-Year student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.” snickered Hermione. 

The couple heard three consecutives “What!?”. The first was from James and Lily, the second was from Fleamont and Euphemia and the last one was from pretty much everyone else in the room. 

“What the bloody hell are you talking about?” shouted Sirius, waking up baby Harry who had fallen back asleep in Lily’s arms. 

“Gee, thanks Padfoot.” said adult Harry with a smirk when he heard his younger self cry. 

“Sorry!” he said quickly under the glare of all three Potter women. 

“Anyway, for those wondering, everything I mentioned happened. To make it simple since we don’t have all day here, the troll happened when our D.A.D.A Professor was being processed by Voldemort and made a troll enter the castle to serve as a distraction while he was trying to steal Nicolas Flamel’s infamous Philosopher’s Stone. Back then, it was being guarded in the castle.” 

“That day happened to be Halloween and the 10 years Anniversary, if you can call it that, of the death of my parents. It’s also the day Hermione and I became friends since it was the day Ron made her cry. She hid in one of the bathrooms. I kept feeling horrible because of what Ron had said and because I didn’t come to her defence so once I heard about the troll, I dragged Ron with me toward the girl's bathroom to try to alert Hermione before it was too late. The problem was that once we arrived, the bloody troll was in the bathroom!” 

“At that point, when I was in the bathroom, I had pretty much given up on the Wizarding World. I still didn’t have a single friend and didn’t really felt welcome.” she said. She noticed that Harry was now looking down in shame. She knew that Harry hadn’t done anything wrong to her but since it was Harry, he couldn’t help but blame himself for the whole thing. She started rubbing his back with one hand as she was still holding Rose with the other. She kissed him on the top of his head and said “When I saw the troll enter, I thought that my time on Earth was over, that I would die. It’s only when I heard Harry and Ron that I started feeling hope. They tried to distract the troll while I was trying to get to them but they didn’t really manage by throwing debris at them. So, what did Harry do?” 

“If he’s anything like me, he probably did something completely stupid.” blurted James. 

“He jumped on the back of the troll and stuck his wand in the troll’s nose.” said Hermione. 

Sirius laughed “I think that must have got his attention.” 

“Well yes, it worked but the problem was that now I didn’t have access to my wand. The troll had thrown me down and my wand was still stuck there. Ron decided to use a levitation charm on the club and it worked. He dropped it on his head which knocked the troll out.” 

“We all became friends after that and we would later be known as ‘The Golden Trio’.” she said before they both frowned again. It was obvious to everyone else that something must have happened to their friendship with Ron but they didn’t know what. 

“During the year, we slowly unravelled the mystery of the Philosopher’s Stone and eventually, at the end of the year, we found out that someone was about to steal it. Back then we thought it was Snape who since then had become the Potions Professor at Hogwarts which, spoiler alert, he didn’t treat me well as the son of James Potter, but like I said it was someone else, Professor Quirrell who tried to steal it. The stone was protected by various tests. The first was a Devil Snare, which Hermione passed by lighting a fire with her wand. The second was a flying key, which I passed by grabbing a broom and managed to grab the key. There is a reason I am the youngest Hogwarts Seeker in a century after all...” 

“Youngest Seeker in a century?” asked James and Fleamont with interest. 

“Not now James/Fleamont!” said Lily and Euphemia who wanted Harry to continue the tale. 

“So, after that, it was a giant chessboard which Ron beat since he was one of Hogwarts’ best chess players. The next one was another troll but when he arrived, he had already been knocked down by Quirrell who had come just before us and the last one was a potions riddle which Hermione beat easily. Hermione then went back to grab Ron and bring him to the Hospital Wing before trying to contact Professor Dumbledore, who wasn’t at Hogwarts that day, while I continued on. I met Quirrell who was stuck in front of the last obstacle: The Mirror of Erised.” 

A few people, including Dumbledore, gasped in recognition. 

“The Mirror was quite a genius idea since you could only take the stone out if you wanted the Stone but didn’t want to use it. Since Quirrell wanted the Stone and wanted to use it, he wasn’t able to get it.” 

“Quite ingenious, if I do say so myself.” said Dumbledore. 

“You came with the idea, Professor. All obstacles had been designed by one Professor. The first one, the Devil Snare was Professor Sprout’s. The Flying Keys were Professor Flitwick, The Giant Chess Board was Professor McGonagall’s, the Troll was Professor Quirrell’s, obviously, and the Potions riddle was Professor Snape’s. The Mirror of Erised, the final challenge was Professor Dumbledore’s and it was the one where Quirrell was stuck at.” 

“What happened next?” asked Lily, really worried for her son. 

“Quirrell started doing his villain talk and eventually turned back to the Mirror. Then, out of nowhere, a new voice ordered Quirrell to make me look at the Mirror. I saw myself with the stone in my hand and putting it in my pocket. Suddenly, the real Stone was there in my pocket! Now, my goal was to flee before Quirrell realised that I had it but the voice knew that I had it. He ordered Quirrell to show him to me. The voice was Voldemort stuck at the back of his head.” he said with disgust. A few people gasped. “Basically, Voldemort tried to talk me into giving him the Stone, I told him to go fuck himself...”

“Language Harry...” muttered Hermione by habit.

“...although not in such crude words and Voldemort ordered Quirrell to attack me.” he continued quickly. “For some reasons, he didn’t use his wand and instead tried to strangle me which saved my life. Since I still had Mum’s protection, Quirrell would be burned every time he touched me.” 

“Like the idiot he is, when he realised that, he jumped on Quirrell to burn him and eventually magically exhausted himself.” said Hermione, rolling her eyes at the antics her husband used to pull. 

“Yeah...” said Harry, rubbing the back of his neck. “Woke up three days later in the Hospital Wing.” he shrugged like it was an unimportant fact. 

“Don’t say it like that! You scared the hell out of me when Dumbledore suddenly showed up in the Hospital Wing carrying your body.” 

“Sorry.” he said, genuinely at his wife’s concerns. 

“And this happened in your First Year?” said Fleamont, incredulous. 

“It gets worse.” said Harry and Hermione.

“Goddammit.” said James before slamming his head on the table.

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter will later be the basis for a standalone prequel.


End file.
